Both the well-being of older persons and their use of long-term care services are influenced by their living arrangements in the community (alone or with others) and the rate at which they enter institutional settings. The proposed study will examine the effects of health, income, cost of living, family structure, marital status, age-sex, and race on the living arrangements of older persons. Multinomial logit analyses will be used to estimate the effects of these factors, particularly health status and income, on independent living, living with others, and living in an institution. Dynamic relationships, specifically the effect of community living arrangement on probability of subsequent institutionalization, will also be explored. Separate analyses will be conducted by gender, race, and marital status (married, non-married, never married). The proposed study design combines parallel data from two separate surveys: the National Health Interview Survey and the Survey of Institutionalized Persons (with the National Nursing Home Survey as a potential supplementary data source). A key element of this study is the use of recently-developed techniques for disaggregate choice modelling and construction of samples from multiple surveys (choice-based sampling). Application of these techniques, by utilizing sources of data in a new way, will permit a more detailed analysis of the determinants of independent living than has been possible from studies based on aggregate data.